Iris

The Iris

The Iris is an ancient Cambodian artefact. It was discovered jointly by Lara and Werner Von Croy in 1984 in Angkor Wat. When Werner tried to remove the Iris from the mechanical globe, even after Lara warned him about the possibility of a trap, the room started to shake and Werner caught his leg in some debris, giving him a limp for life. The mechanical globe closed with him still in it. Lara managed to escape. We do not know how long Werner was trapped in the globe, but he did escape and he took the Iris with him. He also held a major grudge against Lara for abandoning him.

Eventually Werner founded a research company: Von Croy Industries, which had a tower block base in New York City. The Iris was taken there for research on its powers. In 1997 Lara broke into the tower and stole the Iris successfully. She keeps the Iris in her treasure vault to this day. The Iris appears to be a central sphere of an orange substance that emanates light, somewhat resembling the internal structure of the planet Earth. Three spherical cups of different sizes rotate at random patterns around the centre as shown in the image.

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  Von Croy taking the Iris

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  The Iris stored in a security device on The 13th Floor in Von Croy Industires, New York City

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  The Iris in the treasure vault

Powers

We only see the powers of this artefact in Tomb Raider Chronicles. When Lara is escaping from Von Croy Industries, she uses the Iris as a power source to teleport herself to another room. However for this power to be manipulated, a special machine needs to present in both the room where you are being teleported, and the room you are being teleported to. These radioactive machines were constructed by Von Croy Industries. The Iris ignores gravity and can hover in mid air.

Appearances

The Iris is the artefact that appears most in the Tomb Raider series. It appears in Lara's treasure vault in Tomb Raider III (implying that she stole it from Von Croy, before the story of Tomb Raider III takes place). The story of how the Iris was obtained is revealed in Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, and the story of how Lara stole the Iris from Von Croy Industries is told in Tomb Raider Chronicles.